"During his inaugural performance at a sold-out Ravinia, old school R&B may have been the main focus, but the singer also mixed crests from every era of his celebrated career. The results found the packed pavilion and picnicking lawn switching vibes between
On October 4, WTTW's Chicago Tonight ran the second of a two part story on their ArtsBeat blog about the 43rd anniversary of Janis Joplin's untimely death at the age of 27. Chicago journalist Dorothy Andries recalls her first-hand experience of covering Joplin's last Chicago-area show for Pioneer Press on August 4, 1970 at Ravinia, just a mere two months before her passing. Just the day before her Ravinia performance she was a guest on The Dick Cavet show and put on one heck of a performance!
For the second year in a row Ravinia has recieved two Emmy nominations from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Chicago/Midwest Chapter! This year's videos were produced by our friends at Bitter Jester Creative, and they have hit it out of the park once again!
Featured below are both videos up for nomination:
Here is your chance to become part of Ravinia history! The Ravinia Festival Women's Board is hosting their annual poster design contest, inviting artists to submit their creative, imaginative and colorful poster design for the 2014 season. This year the theme is "Season of Stars, Summer of Love." Work that features original drawings, paintings or graphic designs will be favorably regarded. Interested? We have provided guidelines below, but for the entire entry packet, please visit Ravinia.org/poster2014.aspx or email at postercompetition@ravinia.org.
THEME/DIRECTIONRavinia 2013 artist Cheap Trick has had one heck of a wild career. They had a rocky start breaking into the top 100 in the U.S., but little did they know they were quickly approaching legendary status in Japan. Sound Opinions hosts Greg Kot and Jim DeRogatis sit down with Cheap Trick in the studio to celebrate the 35th anniversary of their landmark live album, At Budokan. Listen below for a unique look at the rise of one of rock’s most iconic bands.
“The band members talk about the Beatlemania they experienced in Japan and why they'll steal your guitar, but never your girlfriend.”
Chicago jazz legend pianist Willie Pickens will serve as teacher and Ravinia President and CEO (and pianist) Welz Kauffman will be one of his students—joining an ensemble of the best high-school jazz players from Chicago Public Schools—in a jazz master class open to the public at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 19, in Room L060 of the Chicago Performing Arts Building on the UIC campus at 1040 W. Harrison St. The ensemble will also include alumni of Ravinia’s Jazz Scholars program, including one who is now a CPS band director. The entertaining Pickens will publicly critique the ensemble and hone their performance as they work their way through a song. Every year Ravinia selects the best high school players to form the Jazz Scholars, an ensemble that studies and plays real gigs with jazz professionals as part of Ravinia’s REACH*TEACH*PLAY education programs.
Each year Steinway & Sons provides Ravinia with dozens of Steinway and Steinway-designed pianos for use throughout the year. Steinway is now taking a limited number of appointments to sell used Steinway, Boston and Essex pianos at Bennett Gordon Hall on Sept. 20 and 21. The sale will be open to the public on Sept. 22. Steinway-designed pianos are rarely discounted. Many of these pianos were taken in on trade, rental returns, or have been retired from Ravinia and Steinway’s concert inventory. There will even be a small number of new pianos from 2011/2012 that are being priced to find homes. Check here for appointments and details.
Congratulations to Ravinia Steans Music Institute alumni Bryan Lee (violin, 2009 and 2010 - photo far-right) and Joel Link (violin, 2009 - photo far-left), members of the Dover Quartet, which recently took first prize at the Banff International String Quartet Competition (BISQC).
"In a competition that was remarkable for the very high standard of performances, the Dover Quartet consistently demonstrated an exceptional level of maturity, poise and artistry," said Barry Shiffman, Executive Director of BISQC. "This young group is ready for a major performing career, and we look forward to working together to help make that happen."
Ravinia’s latest initiative, Sistema Ravinia, which puts musical instruments in the hands of young students, will begin its second year of daily afterschool instrumental instruction with 40 Circle Rockets orchestra students.
The Jazz Scholars program matches talented high school students with Chicago’s finest jazz musicians, providing training and mentorship. These students meet with and rehearse over 50 times per year with our Jazz Mentors.
The Music Discovery program enhances the musical skills of thousands of K-3rd grade Chicago Public School students in over 140 classrooms by providing resident teaching artists and interactive music learning activities.
The Ravinia Lawndale Family Music School begins its free music classes in general music, voice, violin, guitar and piano for children and adults who reside in this underserved community.
Many artists from the $10 BGH Classics series and other renowned ensembles and musicians will perform in schools through Ravinia’s Guest Artists in the Classroom.
Mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford, an alumna of Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, just earned great notices for helping to close the 2013 Tanglewood season with its traditional finale, Beethoven’s Ninth.
She returns to Ravinia Saturday, Sept. 7 to help close Ravinia's season with the Midwest premiere of the acclaimed John Adams Passion, The Gospel According to the Other Mary. Mumford will reprise the role she originated along with fellow original cast members mezzo Kelley O’Connor, tenor Russell Thomas and countertenors Daniel Bubeck, Brian Cummings and Nathan Medley. Grant Gershon conducts the Chicago Philharmonic and Los Angeles Master Chorale.
The Ravinia Student Advisory Board and the Ravinia Associates congratulate Morgan Park High School, the winner of Ravinia’s third annual high school attendance contest for Chicago Symphony Orchestra concerts. More than 100 Chicago area high schools participated in the contest, which awards students points when they attend CSO concerts at Ravinia.
Morgan Park edged out last year’s winner, Central Burlington. Rounding out the top five schools this year, 2011 winner Highland Park High School took third, New Trier High School took fourth, and Libertyville High School took fifth.
Find full standings on our website. Morgan Park will be awarded a $5,000 grant generously donated by the Ravinia Associates, a board of young professionals who support Ravinia by raising funds and increasing awareness of the festival’s REACH*TEACH*PLAY education programs.
Find out what’s new with the Classical Youth Initiative on Facebook and Instagram.
At Steans, the faculty and fellows both strive for excellence. When the fellows leave the institute at the end of the summer, we know they are going on the great things. We follow their careers and support them through every one of their milestones. We were happy to hear that 2005 RSMI alumna Claudia Huckle, a mezzo-soprano from England, recently won the Birgit Nilsson Prize at Plácido Domingo's Operalia competition. Congratulations, Claudia!
Violinist Johnny Gandelsman, co-concertmaster of the extraordinarily popular and future-looking chamber orchestra The Knights, will make his Ravinia solo debut on the $10 BGH Classics series on Sunday,Sept. 1. His program will include Stravinsky’s Elégie, Philip Glass’s Strung Out and two of Bach’s works (one sonata and one partita) for unaccompanied violin. He returns to play with The Knights on Tuesday,Sept. 3, on a concert that features tenor Nicholas Phan, an alumnus of Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute. That program includes Copland’s Quiet City and, to mark the centennial of Benjamin Britten, his Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings. Gandelsman was here earlier this summer with the ensemble Brooklyn Rider.
Alabama native Aaron Parker, the hit-maker behind “Anything Alabama,” appropriately enough has signed on to open for the legendary rock bandAlabama in its Ravinia debut on Friday, Aug. 30.
The CD Alabama and Friends was released this week and features performances by Jason Aldean, Rascal Flatts, Kenny Chesney, Toby Keith, Trisha Yearwood and more.
The group Classic Albums Live recreates one of the most important recordings in rock history, track by track, when it performs Pink Floyd’s masterpiece The Dark Side of the Moon on Sunday, Sept. 8. Professional astronomers affiliated with NASA and The Adler Planetarium will share their equipment for all patrons to enjoy the night sky before and during the appropriately themed concert. The classic album was recently entered into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress.
When George “Buddy” Guy was born in Lettsworth, Louisiana he probably had no idea that someday he’d make it into Rolling Stone’s list of “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”. Then again maybe he did. After all, Buddy got his start learning guitar on a two string diddley bow that he made himself. His Chicago affiliation began when he moved here in the late 1950’s and met Muddy Waters—the ‘father of Chicago Blues’— and started recording for Cobra Records.
His style is unparalleled; in one concert you will hear blues, rock, soul, jazz, and all the sub-genres in between. That’s why they named him the bridge from blues to rock and roll, from the historic Chicago sounds of Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf to the ever changing sound of modern blues rock (think Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Stevie Ray Vaughan and of course Jimi Hendrix).
Combined with his legendary voice and iconic showmanship, seeing Buddy Guy perform live is one of the most important things you can do. Lucky for you tickets are still available for his August 17 concert with George Thorogood & The Destroyers. Come hear why he was named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2012 and why he continues to remind people everywhere that there is nothing like “Sweet Home Chicago”.
Before there were MP3 downloads, before compact discs and tape cassettes and even phonograph records, there was Franz Liszt. Considered by many to be the first “rock star” of music, he created the solo piano recital and drove his audiences into wild frenzies of adulation with his unprecedented keyboard technique. But he used that popularity to help other composers whose works, he felt, were under-appreciated or insufficiently known. At that time the general public had far fewer opportunities to hear large-scale symphonic and operatic works. Since there was no recording medium yet, Liszt helped disseminate many important compositions by creating transcriptions and arrangements of pieces he felt were noteworthy. Some of his transcriptions were relatively straightforward; others became astonishing fantasies in which various themes from other works were interwoven. But either way, he brought numerous composers to the attention of the concert audiences of his time. Just a sampling of the composers who benefited from his musical proselytizing would include Beethoven, Bellini, Berlioz, Donizetti, Glinka, Gounod, Meyerbeer, Rossini, Saint-Saëns, Schubert, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Verdi and Wagner.
Much has been made in 2013 about the bicentennials of Richard Wagner and Giuseppe Verdi and the centennial of Benjamin Britten, but another great composer also celebrates what would have been his hundredth birthday this year. Witold Lutosławaki was a major 20th-century composer and one of Poland’s finest musicians of the past several decades. His works, heavily influenced by Polish folk traditions, will be represented by pianist Adam Golka, who will play Lutosławski’s “Folk Melodies” on his Aug. 29 program, and by The 5 Browns, who will perform his Variations on a Theme by Paganini on their Sept. 5 Martin Theatre program.
Ravinia’s large-scale presentations of Stephen Sondheim’s works have been critically acclaimed audience-pleasers. But there is more than one way to approach an artist of Sondheim’s magnitude. Pianist Anthony DeMare brings a fresh approach to his Aug. 25 concert, Liaisons, for which he commissioned several of today’s influential composers to reimagine some of Sondheim’s brightest songs as piano pieces. Works will include The Demon Barber by Kenji Bunch, Being Alive by Gabriel Kahane, Color and Light by Nico Muhly, I’m Excited. No You’re Not. by Jake Heggie, Send in the Clowns by Ethan Iverson and many more. Reserved seats are only $10.
All summer Ravinia has been celebrating the 25th anniversary of its summer conservatory, Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute. Perhaps the biggest celebration yet comes tonight, Aug. 12, with a concert that boasts nine world-premiere songs, commissioned for the milestone year. Tickets are just $10, and all ticket-holders are invited to a post-concert party. The songs are Jake Heggie’s By the Spring, at Sunset, Aaron Jay Kernis’s setting of Walt Whitman’s Clear Midnight, Ramsey Lewis’s Quiet Moments, David Ludwig’s Still Life, Stephen Paulus’s Was It All a Dream?, Augusta Read Thomas’s Twilight Butterfly, and a three-song cycle by Roberto Sierra called Décimas.